Remembering Paul L. Norris: Aquaman creator enjoyed a long career in comics

JEFF FRANK - Staff Writer

OCEANSIDE - Paul Norris used to tell people he was drawing from
the time he was able to hold a pencil.

The creator of Aquaman and many other comic book characters held
plenty of pencils and brushes during a long career as a cartoonist
that included work on features such as Flash Gordon, Tarzan, Jungle
Jim and Brick Bradford.

His drawing ability was also pressed into service during World
War II, when as a member of the U.S. Army Signal Corps he drew up
leaflets for an airdrop during the battle of Okinawa encouraging
the Japanese to surrender. Some of the enemy soldiers gave up
holding the leaflets in their hands, Norris wrote in an
autobiography a few years back.

"I'm proud that my dad was able to save lives at a time of war,"
said Norris' younger son, Reed.

It was an illustration of his father's goodwill toward all men
that Norris made friends with several of the Japanese prisoners of
war, working with them on creating the leaflets, Reed noted.

"My dad followed in Will Rogers' footsteps. He never met a man
he didn't like," he said. "If he found you were honest and sincere,
you would have a friend for life."

Many of Norris' friends will gather at 6:30 p.m. tonight at
Grandma's Hilltop Hideaway Cafe in Oceanside (539 Vista Bella) for
an exhibition of his work and celebration of the life of the
cartoonist, who died Nov. 5 at his Oceanside home. He was 93.

Despite his early prowess with a pencil, the world of art was a
secondary destination for Norris, born April 26, 1914, in
Greenville, Ohio. His grandmother, who raised him after his
mother's death when he was 7 weeks old, wanted Norris to become a
priest.

So he headed for Midland Lutheran College in Nebraska but left
when an opportunity arose to create a comic strip for a new
syndicate. The syndicate folded before his strip could be
distributed, leaving him out of school and out of work in the
middle of the Great Depression.

Norris returned to his family's farm, then enrolled in night
classes at the Dayton Art Institute. Entering his first class, life
drawing, Norris, loaded with art supplies, either bumped into the
door or was flustered at the sight of the nude model - depending on
whose version of the story is believed - and dropped
everything.

Embarrassed, Norris looked for the first place he could find to
hide, and settled at an open easel next to a pretty young woman
named Ann.

"She was so enamored with him that she signed her name big
across the top of her drawing so he wouldn't miss it," said Reed.
"The (relationship) took off from there."

So did Norris' career. The couple married on Thanksgiving Day in
1939. By then, he had met the art editor of the Dayton Daily News
and landed a gig drawing a Sunday comic feature titled Scoop Lenz,
the story of a newspaper cameraman.

Meanwhile, Ann worked at a department store with the mother of
Milton Caniff, creator of the Terry and the Pirates and Steve
Canyon comic strips. The two cartoonists eventually met, with
Caniff advising Norris to head for New York City, even arranging a
job for him with a comic book publisher.

Norris soon landed a job with Prize Comics, where he wrote the
Power Nelson strip and created a feature called Yank and Doodle.
One day in 1941, he was asked to create a character with super
powers who lived in the sea. Soon, Aquaman was born.

After World War II, Norris' career took him to Adventure and
D.C. Comics and the Kings Features Syndicate, where he worked on
characters such as the Sandman, Vic Jordan, Flash Gordon, Jungle
Jim and Secret Agent X-9.

He took over the Brick Bradford strip in 1952 and continued
drawing it until his retirement from daily work in 1987. He and
Ann, who died in 2001, moved to Oceanside about 40 years ago.

"He believed in right and wrong," said his son. "He believed in
all the qualities that superheros embodied. … He embraced the
principles of right and wrong, doing the right thing, being honest
and being sincere - good old American values."

When not drawing, Norris enjoyed playing golf with Ann, the love
of his life for 61 years, Reed said. He also enjoyed getting
together with other practitioners of his art with the San Diego
Cartoonists Society.

"Everyone I know in cartooning holds Paul in very high regard,
both as a person and as one of the best artists that worked in the
comic book genre," said cartoonist Jim Whiting. "He was an
exemplary person. An exceptional person. … He's such a gentleman.
We're going to miss him."